Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Report Summary The American public has not absorbed the basic facts of many major news stories of recent months. While most Americans know that Nelson Mandela was elected in South Africa, and that Richard Nixon was the President forced to resign over Watergate, a new nationwide survey by the Times Mirror Center found the public [...]
Report Summary In a comparative media survey across eight countries, the publics of North America and Western Europe credit the news media for its positive overall impact on their countries. Large majorities said the press helps their democracies and has a good influence on their societies — usually better than the influence of other institutions, [...]
Report Summary Melodramatic court trials carried on television recently have enjoyed huge audiences in the United States, a new nationwide Times Mirror survey found. Fully 43% of the American public have watched at least four of five of the most sensational trials aired on TV within the past few years. The survey also suggests that [...]
Report Summary While very few Americans followed news of Bobby Ray Inman’s abrupt withdrawal as nominee for secretary of defense, many agree with the criticisms he made of the press in explaining his departure from public life.
Report Summary Most Americans say they still haven’t made up their minds about Bill Clinton. But the President’s personal image has been weakened by a belief that he can’t get things done and a feeling that he breaks his promises. Six months into office few Americans can cite a Clinton achievement without prompting, and the [...]
Report Summary Despite an upsurge in consumer confidence, the attention of the American public continues to be focused on the economy. Nearly two out of three Americans (62%) believes that the economy is still either in a recession, or in a depression, while only 34% of the public thinks that an economic recovery has begun.
Report Summary On the eve of the national political conventions the American electorate is composed of three generations that are likely to play vastly different roles in the coming election. Americans over 50 may be the first generation of older people in modern history to spearhead a political revolution, and middle-aged people, clustered in the [...]
Report Summary While news about the Rodney King verdict and the Los Angeles riots clearly dominated the public’s interest, reports about the condition of the economy were still very closely followed by four in ten Americans (39%). But attention to the economy dropped significantly since Times Mirror’s March and February polls (47% and 47% respectively). [...]
Report Summary In a period when Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as President of the USSR, when the Soviet Union fragmented and dissolved, and when the Commonwealth of Independent States took its place, stories about the U.S. economy are being followed much more closely by the American people.
Report Summary The nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court and stories relating to the condition of the economy were the most closely followed news events of the past four weeks. Thirty-five percent of the public said they were following news about the economy very closely and 33% said they were following news [...]
Report Summary According to the latest Times Mirror monthly News Interest Index, most Americans (55%) think that the press is unfair in the way it covers the Vice President. Only one in three Americans (33%) regard coverage of him as fair. Republicans and Independents were more likely than Democrats to be critical of the way [...]
Report Summary In a year that began and ended with American troops in the field, international news dominated the consciousness of Americans in 1990. In nine months of the last year, international news stories were the most closely followed news stories of the month, and throughout the entire period the public regarded international events as [...]
Report Summary Interest in news about the economy and the election campaigns increased markedly in the past month, but the crisis in the Gulf continued to be the story most closely followed by the American public. For the fourth consecutive month, approximately two-thirds of Times Mirror’s nationwide sample (62%) reported that it was following the [...]
Report Summary Americans remain as attentive as they were a month ago to events in the Persian Gulf. Sixty-three percent of the public are following news about the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and the deployment of U.S. forces to the Persian Gulf very closely. Our August survey showed an only marginally higher level of interest [...]
Report Summary In a nation bombarded by a steady stream of new diets, health conscious cookbooks, physical fitness, low-fat foods and cholesterol tests, many Americans still say they are overweight and only a small number rate their physical condition and health as excellent. Fighting the battle of the bulge as well as the urge to [...]
Report Summary In the days when LBJ was President, the phrase “generation gap” summed up the contrasting political and social values of young Americans and their elders. Today, a new but different generation gap exists. A major comparative examination of what young people know, what they pay attention to, and what media they use reveals [...]
Report Summary Thirty-eight percent of the American public followed the Bush-Gorbachev summit “very closely” according to a new Times Mirror News Interest Index released today. While interest in the Washington summit was almost twice as great as public interest in last December’s meeting of the two world leaders off the coast of Malta (21%), the [...]
Report Summary News about the release of American hostages in the Middle East has attracted more public attention than any other single story in 1990 so far. Close to half the public (46%) report that they have paid very close attention to stories about the release of Robert Polhill and Frank Reed. This is the [...]
Report Summary Events overseas are overshadowing the importance of domestic news to the public. Americans are ten times more likely to cite an international news story (40%) than a domestic one (4%) as the most important event of the month. This is the fifth month in a row that Americans have named overseas stories more [...]
Report Summary In a month in which no single news story dominated public attention, Americans registered a strong protest about the amount of news coverage devoted to the marital breakup of Donald and Ivana Trump. A record 55% said there was too much news about the Trumps. This is by far the largest “over covered” [...]
Report Summary The crash of an Avianca Airlines jetliner near New York’s Kennedy Airport was the most closely followed news story in January, according to the latest Times Mirror New Interest Index, followed by the Charles Stuart murder case in Boston, the arrest of Washington Mayor Marion Barry, and the acquittal of defendants in California’s [...]
Report Summary In December, Americans paid great attention to the invasion of Panama. News of the Romanian revolution, however, attracted only a modest level of public interest. While sixty percent of the public followed events in Panama very closely, only 28% said that they were very attentive to the violent overthrow of the Ceausescu government. [...]
Report Summary Only 28% of Americans are paying close attention to the sweeping political changes taking place in Eastern and Central Europe. This represents a significant fall off in public interest in this story since November, when the Times Mirror News Interest Index found 50% following very closely the breaking news about the opening of [...]
Report Summary Two momentous news stories engaged the attention of a majority of the American public over the past four weeks. Nearly three in four Americans (73%) followed very closely news about the destruction caused by the San Francisco earthquake while half the public (50%) followed closely the recent news about the opening of the [...]
Report Summary Two stories over the past four weeks are distinguished by how much and how little attention Americans paid to them. Reports of the amount of destruction caused by Hurricane Hugo were very closely followed by 60% of Americans, making it the third most closely followed story out of the 71 tracked by the [...]
Report Summary News about the drug wars, international and domestic, dominated the American consciousness in September in a way that no other issue did. There was extensive public attentiveness, significant public understanding, and few complaints about the amount of press coverage devoted to the story:
Report Summary News about the crash of a United Airlines DC-10 in Iowa, and the American hostages in the Mideast, were the only stories followed very closely by large percentages of Americans in early August. The Sioux City air disaster and the murder of Marine Lt. Col. Higgins and related Mideast events, were closely followed [...]
Report Summary China, abortion, and the flag were the stories that dominated the consciousness of Americans in early July. Each was followed very closely by nearly half of all American adults – a level of response that places these stories in the top quintile of all stories Times Mirror has tracked. Although all three stories [...]
Report Summary The Alaska oil spill was the story that attracted the most public attention in early May. Nearly nine in ten Americans (89%) were following news coverage of the Alaskan oil spill very or fairly closely. A majority (52%) were following very closely, and a plurality (36%) chose it as the news story they [...]
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About Pew Research Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
